The automatic update feature from the Options menu will allow the client side of HSpot to update itself if, when starting up, it detects that a newer version is available at the HSC; new versions were released at regular intervals as bugs were reported and fixed and additional functionality was added to HSpot. It is likely that HSpot 7.0 will be the final release of HSpot, but it is possible that small updates may be required occasionally to maintain functionality in the future.
HSpot will access the updated files at the HSC via the Internet and will automatically install them on your computer. Auto-update is the default setting when you first install HSpot. If you turn this feature off, or decline an auto-update at any time, HSpot will remember that you have turned it off. We advise strongly users to leave auto-update turned on and to accept auto-updates when they occur to ensure that their HSpot version does not become outdated.
![[Note]](../../admonitions/note.gif) | Note |
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Time estimator version changes may have occurred occasionally even when the HSpot version does not change. These were seen when starting a new session: a pop-up appeared to give the details of the new time estimator version. No time estimator changes will occur in post-operations. The time estimator is linked to the latest version of the code (the "CUS") that controls the instruments and sets the observation parameters. Usually these changes do not affect the duration of observations, but do affect how their set-up is made, so they are important for the observations. In the majority of cases the CUS only changes for one of the three instruments in a new time estimator version. When your AORs have not be estimated with the latest time estimator version the estimates will appear in red as out of date for all instruments. It is extremely important to keep the time estimates and the underlying set-up up to date and synchronised with the latest instrument control software. Proposal submission fails if there are AORs without a valid time estimate (i.e. "No est," displayed rather than a numerical value in red indicating an out of date value). |